The need to shelter loading docks and the personnel working thereon from weather related elements has long been known. For example, it has long been known that it is undesirable to permit snow, rain or wind to enter either a warehouse or a truck being unloaded at a dock. Permitting heated or cooled air to escape the warehouse during use of the dock is equally undesirable.
Many proposals have addressed these issues. For example, dock shelters and dock seals which provide employee comfort and protect inventory by keeping weather elements away from the dock area and which improve energy conservation by limiting loss of heated or cooled air have long been commercially available. While many of the above-noted products have been very successful in addressing these environmental issues, there remains room for improvement. For example, when a vehicle such as a semi-trailer truck has been in a rain or snow storm, it often collects water (and sometimes slush, snow or ice) on the top surface of its trailer. When the trailer backs up to a loading dock, there is a potential for this collection of water (or slush, snow or ice) to flow over the leading edge of the top of the trailer into the loading dock area. A similar effect can occur with a truck parked at a dock when a rain or snow storm begins. Although many available shelters and seals will prevent rain and snow from falling directly into the dock area, there is a potential for water, snow, ice or slush to collect on the trailer top and subsequently run over the leading edge of the trailer onto the dock. This potential is particularly acute in loading docks with parking areas pitched towards the dock, as all or nearly all of the rain or melting snow on the top surface of the trailer will run towards the lowest part of the trailer, which, in this example, is the leading edge of the truck adjacent the dock.